UNC baseball falls to UNC Greensboro Spartans Tuesday night 3-2

The UNC baseball team (21-22, 14-16 ACC) fell to UNC Greensboro 3-2 as the Spartans rallied to victory in the top of the ninth Tuesday night.

Baseball is a game of momentum— it swings back and forth almost as quickly and violently as the bats. For the Tar Heels, this haunted them throughout Tuesday’s game.

UNC Greensboro struck swiftly as they led off the game with a single and a two-run homer followed to claim the lead off of Shawn Rapp before the inning was over.

In the bottom of the second, the Tar Heels cut into the deficit as Mac Horvath launched a solo homer with two outs that made it 2-1.

Despite a rough first inning, Rapp pitched well in the following innings as he struck out five and surrendered only one hit. In the bottom of the fifth, however, Rapp allowed a two-out single and hit the next batter to give UNCG a run-scoring opportunity.

Gage Gillian pitched in relief and kept the Spartans off the scoreboards for the inning.

The Tar Heels possessed a golden opportunity to tie the game or take the lead in the bottom of the fifth. A leadoff single by Tomas Frick followed by another single by Johnny Castagnozzi  put runners on first and second with no outs.

With momentum on their side, things abruptly swung in the opposite direction as Dallas Tesser hit a liner to the shortstop that was caught, and allowed UNCG to double off Frick. The next batter, Caleb Roberts flew out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth Colby Wilkerson worked a one-out walk for the Tar Heels, but Max Riemer promptly hit into a double play that took any chance of a rally away for UNC.

Gillian pitched around a leadoff double in the top of the seventh as he promptly retired the next three batters to keep the game at 2-1.

In the bottom of the eighth Brett Centracchio pinch-hit and led off with a single, but the next two batters made outs. Angel Zarate singled to center to give UNC runners on the corners with two outs. In a pinch-hit opportunity Tyler Causey singled in the tying run for UNC and Zarate moved to third. Despite a walk that loaded the bases with two outs, the Tar Heels did not push another run across and the game was now tied 2-2.

It was not long before the Spartans reclaimed the lead over North Carolina as a one-out double and throwing error put a runner at third in the top of the ninth. The next batter hit a sac fly to give UNCG a 3-2 lead.

Clemente Inclan singled with one out to give UNC a chance in their last inning. The next batter fouled out, and the Tar Heels were down to their last out. Two wild pitches advanced the runner all the way to third with two outs. With the tying run 90 feet away, Tesser struck out and UNC lost the game 3-2.

Despite two double plays that killed the momentum for the Tar Heels in both the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings, UNC remained in the game, and later tied it.

The one error UNC committed put a runner on third with one out in the top of the ninth, which became the deciding run of the game.

UNC faces a tough Louisville team, who are fresh off a double-header sweep of Duke, in a weekend series in what is a must-win for the Tar Heels. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.  on Friday.

For coverage of this series and everything UNC sports run over to Keeping It Heel!